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Let us see the passage: "And the whole earth was of one language, and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain, in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly; and let us build us a city and tower, whose top may reach to heaven, LEST WE BE SCATTERED ABROAD UPON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH."
Now, here we have the first great attempt of man to contravene the intention of God, that he should enter upon and colonize the earth. God says, "Move forward, and possess the whole earth." Man says, "No; we shall stay in this plain of Shinar, for here is clay for bricks. Let us burn them thoroughly, and build us a city, whose top may reach to heaven, lest we be scattered abroad." And thus the foundations of mighty Babylon were laid.
I believe that the gigantic extent of London, or "Modern Babylon," as it is sometimes called, is owing, in no small measure, to our facility in making bricks from "London clay." Winn and where we shall stop brick-making and building, I shall not venture to say, for the natural tendency of mankind appears to be to large towns, and the larger the town, the more powerful the attraction. The law of gravitation would seem to operate here, as well as in connexion with our planetary system.
But how many who have come up to London, under the impression, like Whittington, that its streets are paved with gold, are miserably disappointed! But, notwithstanding, here they stay, till the bloom of the country fades from their cheek, with the belief that, in so great and rich a city, they cannot possibly starve; but this some have found to be a mistake. There is no better place for starving in than London: you can manage it in a garret, right well. We have it recorded in Genesis, that God wrought a most extra-ordinary miracle, to overcome this tendency in mankind to congregate together in large towns: "And the Lord said, Behold, this people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do. Go to, let us confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence, upon the face of the whole earth." Could any means be more simple or effectual? or could any more clear and definite expression of God's will respecting the necessity of migration, or emigration, be given to mankind?
Bid it ever strike you, that the faith of Abraham, which is so much lauded in the word of God, was a migrating, or emigrating faith? "Now, the Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and thy father's house, unto a land that I wilt shew thee. … And Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him."
